Two SA Police Service (SAPS) ballistic experts carry the weight of attending shooting crime scenes in five provinces, Capt Laurance Makgotloe told the Madlanga commission on Monday, flagging the state’s “overstretched” forensic capacity negatively affecting investigations.
Makgotloe told the commission investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in the justice cluster that two officers on a stand-by duty shift in the ballistic section based in the SAPS forensic science laboratory in Silverton attend crime scenes in different provinces in one day.
The state’s forensic capacity has been deficient for years. It suffers from backlogs in processing evidence from crime scenes and DNA results in rape cases.
The forensic science laboratory in Silverton is a national lab responsible for several provinces.
Makgotloe, who was accused by investigators in the murder of engineer Armand Swart of sabotage due to delays in ballistics reports, pinned errors he made on the report linking murder suspects to the scene on work pressure.
He said ballistic experts based in Silverton had to attend scenes throughout Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West and at times in the Northern Cape.
“When you are on standby in Gauteng, the two of you who are on standby are responsible for Gauteng as a whole, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo and you go as far as Kimberly. It [the lab] is overstretched.”
Swart was shot 23 times on April 17 2024. Former police detective Michael Pule Tau and his co-accused Musa Kekana and Tiego Floyd Mabusela were arrested while they were allegedly in possession of firearms linked to the crime scene.
Mokgotloe told the commission that on the day of Swart’s murder he was on stand-by duty and attended the crime scene. On the same day, he travelled with his colleague to Piet Retief (eMkhondo), Mpumalanga, to attend another crime scene.
“When you are on standby in Gauteng, the two of you who are on standby are responsible for Gauteng as a whole, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo and you go as far as Kimberly. It [the lab] is overstretched.”
Commission chair Mbuyiseli Madlanga said having limited forensic lab staff on stand-by responsible for many provinces is unworkable.
“It sounds impractical to me. If you take a province like the Northern Cape, assuming you are asked to go to the furthest corner in that province, you may spend a lot of time travelling to the scene.”
Makgotloe agreed and said the national lab did not have enough vehicles to have more people on stand-by to attend to scenes.
Addressing what happened in the Swart case, Makgotloe said he first received exhibits on May 9 and May 20 2024.
The report was completed on May 24 2024, including a report linking firearms found with the accused to the scene and filed for review.
Makgotloe said the review process to check for errors by his colleague took longer than the expected about seven days. The report was released in June 2024 when investigating officers visited the laboratory in Silverton and asked for the report.
The review and amending of errors were done while the officers waited for the report.
Makgotloe gave the officers the report, but it had errors, which included a wrong case number and the incorrect citing of the linking of the AK47 found in Tau’s car.
The report was amended about three times by October 2024.
Makgotloe said that a month later he positively linked bullets found in the deceased’s body to the firearms.
He was promoted to the position of captain in December 2024 and joined the team working on the automated ballistics identification system.
In February 2025 he released a report linking the firearms in Swart’s murder to 18 other cases.
Makgotloe denied sabotaging the case and said he positively linked suspects to the scene.
Our system at the lab does not allow you to review your work. We do not focus on the quality; we focus on the quantity. It is not the correct thing [to do], but it is true. It is because of the number of cases we have versus the number of staff we have
— Makgotloe
“Our system at the lab does not allow you to review your work. We do not focus on the quality; we focus on the quantity. It is not the correct thing [to do], but it is true. It is because of the number of cases we have versus the number of staff we have,” he said, adding errors in the report were innocent mistakes.
Evidence leader Teboho Mosikili said the errors he made in the report could have negatively affected the murder case.
Makgotloe agreed.
Justice & constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, responding to a question in parliament last week, cited forensic resources, especially in rural areas, as one of the contributing factors to delays in the prosecution of cases.
Police detective and forensic services divisional commissioner Hilda Sinthumule previously told the commission the forensic labs were battling and in the current financial had a workload of 400,000 cases. She committed to submit to the commission a report on the state of forensic science laboratories and solutions to address capacity issues.
Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana, who is part of parliament’s committee on police, said he expected the commission to make a recommendation on the systemic challenges in the forensic units negatively affecting the prosecution of cases. Building forensic laboratories in all provinces would not be the solution, Gana said, because the main issue has been human resources.
“The direct impact of this is that there are delays in court processes and this leads to people not trusting the justice system. The forensic labs are under significant strain,” Gana said.
Sinthumule said she would provide a report on how they will capacitate forensics.
Gana said they would like to read the report Sinthumule promised “to see how the SAPS management plans to solve the issue”.
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